


To Be With You

by Rinkafic



Series: Telpa 'verse - Tales Outside Continuity [10]
Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-08
Updated: 2013-02-08
Packaged: 2017-11-28 14:15:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/675315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rinkafic/pseuds/Rinkafic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a sidestep/AU in the Telpa 'verse with Sheppard and Mitchell both being telpa.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Be With You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Karmageddon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karmageddon/gifts).



“What are you doing up front again?” Sasso O’Neill barked as he caught sight of Cam skulking behind the bar near John.

Cam immediately went rigid, fearing another punishment for disobedience. That would make four this moon alone. He dropped his chin and stared at the floor. He’d learned answering led to a harsher punishment; it was better to be silent.

Sasso O’Neill snarled, “Get back upstairs, take a bath and oil yourself. Be ready when I get there or you will regret it.” Cam quickly turned and went towards the narrow back stairway he had used to sneak down to see John. He felt the bar rag O’Neill had been holding hit him in the back of the head.

He would have glanced back at John, but O’Neill was watching. He heard John clinking glasses and continuing on with the task he had been assigned this evening; cleaning behind the bar. Moving slowly up each tread, Cam waited for the signal that O’Neill had walked away; two quick clinks, one slow, and two quick ones in succession. He backed up a step and bent over to look between the rails. John smiled at him. Damn, he loved that smile. He returned it, wondering if John felt the same about him. 

Running up the remaining stairs, Cam quickly drew a bath and slathered oil over his freshly shaved body. O’Neill liked his body telpa smooth and soft, he got annoyed when Cam or John were in less than perfect physical condition. It was never good to annoy the Sasso.

~*~

John finished washing all the glasses just after Sasso O’Neill closed the tavern for the evening and went upstairs. He checked around one more time to be sure everything he had been assigned to do was finished. He didn’t usually draw the Sasso’s ire as much as Cam, but he did get smacked on occasion for oversights. 

For some reason, Sasso O’Neill was much harder on Cam than any other telpa in the tavern. He suspected it might be because at the beginning, when Cam had first come here, John had watched him a lot. He thought O’Neill had taken notice, before John learned to be more subtle. O’Neill was known to be overly possessive and jealous. He wasn’t too cruel, but when his temper was up or he had been drinking, he could turn mean. 

John didn’t think O’Neill knew he and Cam had been sleeping together for several moons. If he did, John was certain retribution would be swift and harsh. The Sasso might be enraged enough to send them off to one of the training houses for severe physical punishment and intense retraining. Worse, he might sell them both off to separate owners, despite their experience and training as body slaves. That would be the worst scenario John could imagine, being separated from Cam forever. 

He went quietly up the stairs and heard O’Neill order harshly _“Jaa!”_ Which was immediately followed by Cam’s knees hitting the floor. John sighed, knowing it was going to be a long night when O’Neill ordered Cam to _“Dal”_ and pointed John to the “waiting spot” beside the door. 

Watching Cam pleasure their owner was always unpleasant. It didn’t bother John so much when it was his turn, he just thought of other things, like Cam. But he knew Cam hated this, hated O’Neill, hated being a telpa – even though he had chosen the telpa pens over the sword when his people had lost the war. 

Trying to ignore what was going on; John stood by the wall and waited for his turn. He tried distracting himself with thoughts of freedom and running away, his favorite fantasies since childhood.

Later, after O’Neill was finished with both of them and had sent them off to their sleeping alcove, Cam crept over and knelt beside the pillows that made up John’s bed. He smoothed his hand over John’s face and hair, making a soothing sound as John started to tremble. He climbed up onto the cushions and curled himself up against John, burying his face in John’s neck. 

Often, this was how it went; they clung silently to each other in the dark for hours, seeking comfort. Very rarely did they get physical, and when they did, it was rushed. It was all they could risk. 

“Shhh. Cam. Shhh,” John whispered as Cam started to make distressed noises and pressed closer to John. He rubbed Cam’s back and kissed the top of his head. “Shhh, love, shhh.” 

Cam suddenly stilled and raised his face to look at John in the dim light coming from the main room. “You called me love?”

“Well, yeah. What’d you think, this was all sex?”

Nodding, Cam leaned up and pressed his lips to John’s, kissing him desperately. When he broke it off, John felt the smile on Cam’s lips. “Love you,” Cam whispered and snuggled down to sleep.

Smiling, John held him and let sleep claim him too. Sasso O’Neill would be wiped out after tonight’s exercise. He wouldn’t wake early. The kitchen was right below where John and Cam slept, and the racket cook made -deliberately- would wake them long before their master. 

For now, they were safe.

~*~

Running over to Cam, John grasped him by the shoulders as he stood looking at the flames and shook him to get his attention. “Did you do this? Cam, did you do this?”  
“I am Miltron Cameron Mitchell, I command the 35th Pharlanx. I am not a coward.”

Dropping his hands away, John tilted his head and looked as his lover. “Cam? Are you with me here? Did you set the fire?”

“A captured soldier’s duty is to escape and report in with information.”

This was not good. John looked around, but had yet to see any authorities turn up in response to the raging fire that had quickly consumed the tavern. O’Neill’s other telpa were standing at a distance, watching their home burn. There was no sign of O’Neill himself, as yet.

Clasping Cam’s cheeks, John turned his face and said sternly, “Cameron, there is no one to report to. Your unit, your army, your province lost the war.”

“We lost?”

John nodded. Cam’s eyes were shimmering with tears. “What… what do we do now?”

Looking around as the fire brigade came in, John was unsure. 

“Look!” Someone shouted. Everyone looked up at the second story of the tavern. A form fell from the window and landed on the paving stones with a sickening thud. John knew who it was. That was Sasso O’Neill’s bedroom window. All others were accounted for; Radek the cook, Sam and Miko the barmaids, Walter the scullery telpa, Teal’c and Ronon the Protectors. There was only one person that corpse could be.

“He’s dead,” Teal’c called out as he went over to check.

John reached down and grabbed Cam’s hand. He was going to do what he had never, ever considered actually doing before meeting Cam. “We run. Now.” Dragging Cam along by the hand, John wove through the back alleys he knew from market trips, heading for the river.

Hours later, Cam was curled on his side sleeping on the raft John had liberated from the riverbank. This was the fastest way to put the most distance between them and The Springs that John could think of. They had to hide. They were both marked, a simple investigation would reveal them as the property of Sasso O’Neill, and they would be re-marked and punished as runaways. 

Looking over at Cam, John hoped he wasn’t truly broken, as his manner had suggested the previous night. He needed Cam’s field experience if they were to have any chance of surviving in the no man’s land between the provinces. John had been raised telpa, he didn’t know any other life. 

Cam woke after the sun rose and smiled up at John sleepily. Then he looked around and sat up in surprise. “What?!? How did we… where are we? What happened?”

“You don’t remember?” John set the pole he’d been using to steer on the raft’s deck and went to crouch beside Cam. “The tavern burned last night. I’m pretty certain O’Neill is dead.”

Clasping John’s arm, Cam hissed, “We’re runaways! Do you know how much trouble we can get into?” 

“I’m hoping you know how to keep us hidden out there. I couldn’t bear the thought of them selling us apart.”

“I didn’t think of that. O’Neill’s dead?”

“Pretty sure.”

“Good. We’re going south?”

John smirked. “We’re going that way.” He pointed. “I don’t know the names of directions.”

Cam reached out and patted John’s arm, then leaned up and kissed him. “We’re free.”

With a snort, John replied, “For the moment. I’m hungry.”

“Then we start there and take it step by step.”

 

The End


End file.
